News

A Western University scientist might see a project she’s co-led launched into space after it was shortlisted by NASA for a future mission. The Dragonfly project, led by Elizabeth Turtle of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, would see a drone-like quadcopter flying above the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

Western University is one step closer to Saturn after one if its projects caught the eye of NASA scientists. The American space agency has shortlisted a plan co-led by Western and Johns Hopkins University to send a drone-like helicopter to the gas giant’s largest moon, Titan. “There’s something very simple about having a little drone flying around Titan,” Western earth sciences professor and project member Catherine Neish said in a statement.

Co-led by a Western space scientist, NASA is exploring a revolutionary plan that could see a drone-like quadcopter buzz above the surface of Saturn’s largest moon. The Dragonfly project would take advantage of Titan’s dense, calm atmosphere to fly from site to site as it measures and analyzes the massive moon’s chemistry, geology – and potential for life. The craft is modeled after drones on Earth, and would have four pairs of stacked rotors that would enable it to zip – as much as an object with a mass of a few hundred kilograms could be said to ‘zip’ – across Titan geography that has intrigued and mystified scientists for decades.

Canada’s space research community is optimistic they will receive a boost in the federal budget set to land Tuesday. Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has already signalled that a “key element” to Tuesday’s budget will be major investments to basic scientific research across the country and Canada’s astronomers and space engineers would like to see a slice of that money.